For example, when carrying out various types of protein analyses such as protein screening, quantitative analysis, etc., like a blood test in clinical fields, a protein test sample solution is distributed into respective holes of a microtiter plate (80 mm wide×120 mm long, 96 holes or 384 holes), and protein chips are prepared. After that, a solution of a preparation to be tested is distributed into the respective holes of the protein chips, whereby the preparation to be tested is analyzed by a solidification reaction and a detection reaction.
Recently, in order to efficiently analyze a number of test samples to be tested in analysis work at a time and to reduce the number of consuming test samples in protein analysis and oligonucleotide (DNA, RNA) analysis, a great number of test samples are spotted on a single substrate at a high density. Resultantly, test samples to be spotted are made very slight in order of microliter or nanoliter per spot.
However, as regards protein test samples, where the spotting amount is made very slight as described above, the protein test samples are dried in a very short time, and the protein itself is denatured and is inactivated, wherein there is a problem in that the analysis work is disabled. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the number of spots while preventing the protein from being denatured and/or inactivated due to drying when producing protein chips.
The present invention has been developed so as to solve the problems in the prior arts, and it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a protein chip holding tool that is capable of effectively executing analysis work by preventing protein from being denatured and/or inactivated due to drying while attempting to make the amount of spotting of protein test samples to be spotted on a substrate very slight as described above.